Man sues over $9,500 Verizon bill

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., July 7 (UPI) -- A West Palm beach, Fla., man is suing Verizon Wireless in state court after his family incurred a $9,500 wireless Internet bill in just 11 days.

Steven Sprague, 48, said he was given a free wireless card for his laptop computer when he re-upped his two-year contract with Verizon and the suit claims he was told by a salesperson that the unlimited wireless card usage from his previous plan would carry over, the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported Monday.

However, the card was broken by Sprague's wife after only 11 days of use by the couple and their three children, ages 16, 12 and 8. Nonetheless, Sprague said, his bill for the month was nearly $9,500.

"I was ticked off at her for breaking the card, but she was doing me the biggest favor in the world," he said. "At least it stopped there."

Sprague said he took the bill to the Circuit City kiosk where he re-upped his contract and found the plan was not unlimited, but instead included a 49-cent surcharge for each megabyte over 5 gigabytes of monthly use.

"This case is either the classic bait-and-switch situation or, worst case, just a blatant attempt to get people in a contract where they don't know what they are getting into," said Sprague's lawyer, Philip Valente Jr.